Fortune
Fortuna, both Buona and Mala, flows from the hands of the sorcerer who studies this path. By his will, probabilities alter, events realign themselves, and his target's future is changed. The superstitious ascribed this power to all witches (untrue), and call it the Evil Eye, scientists speak of altering probabilities and chaos math, and priests call it the Hand of God, but in every case, the end effects are only partly in the hands of the sorcerer. Some mages look on this as being a set of interrelated effects linked closely with a number of rudimentary understanding of the Entropy Sphere. Sorcerers gifted in the Path just smile, nod, and continue on their lucky way. Supernatural beings can be cursed, but get to resist the effect, if they are aware of it, with a Willpower check (difficulty = 4 + the magician's Path rating). Most curses will need only a single success, but very powerful or long-lasting curses can require more in order to be removed completely. Short curses normally won't be discovered unless they are announced ahead of time; a skilled user of Entropy or Prime might detect a curse looming over someone, or someone with Auspex might see it in their aura, however. A character's Arcane rating subtracts from the total successes scored on a one for one ratio (and could well cause the curse to fail utterly). System: Roll: Manipulation+Intimidation (Manipulation+Mathematics for Technomancers) Cost: One Willpower Modifiers: -1 Difficulty if the Sorcerer has some item closely linked with the target Fortune is an Aspected path- successes must be spent on each separate aspect. Each aspect must have at least one dot, which means all uses of Fortune must have at least three successes for minimal effect. Aspects Target In general, the target must be some specific individual or group of individuals, but does not need to be specifically named. So, for example, the target might be "Jimmy Smith, who stole my essay" or "that son of a bitch who just cut me off," but not "everyone who hates me". The more dots in this aspect of the curse, the more people it can affect, and the less specific the targetting needs to be. Duration This is how long the effect will last; whether it coils, strikes, and disappears; or hangs about to discomfit the recipient for months or even years. At their most powerful, effects can last for generations, striking at a specific target in each generation (first born son, for example). Severity The severity of a Fortune effect depends in large part on what the sorcerer wants to do, but the specifics of the effect are never completely under the control of the sorcerer; the caster can suggest, but in the end, every curse of blessing takes its own way. The Path of Fortune benefits from teamwork in a fashion unlike any other path; each assistant who is successful in a skill check not only reduces the difficulty for the lead sorcerer by 1, but also adds a single success to the total pool for paying for aspects. In addition, every three assistants increases the effective knowledge of the Path by one, allowing the group to cast more powerful curses or blessings. A sorcerer can use the Path of Fortune upon herself if she wishes but runs a terrible risk. Any Botched roll means that the sorcerer will suffer the full effects of the worst kinds of backfire that she might accidentally inflict upon others. Worst, while the sorcerer can try and Unweave even a botched curse or blessing upon another, she is totally incapable of lifting or unweaving an effect that she casts upon herself. Since a sorcerer may not know the full impact of her casting for some time, the Storyteller should roll the dice for any use of this Path she works upon herself. Price of Failure Messing with destiny and the future is never something to be undertaken lightly. A failure on the dice roll results in nothing happening (of course, if the target is unlucky enough, the caster may not be able to tell if the curse took effect or not!). A botched curse might boomerang back onto the caster, as the hatred-fueled power feeds back into the source of the bile, rather than the target. Alternatively, it may twist itself into a perverse sort of blessing, something that at first appears to be a curse but is, instead, beneficial to the target in a strange sort of way. (This is especially appropriate if the caster's hatred of the target is not pure and savage enough- half-hearted curses are better left alone, especially powerful ones.) Botched blessings can be just as bad, if not worse. A botched blessing might twist itself into a curse (especially with very powerful blessings), targeted either on the caster or on the targetr (once again, blessings where the motives of the caster are not pure are most likely to do this). More commonly, however, the blessing takes effect but in such a way that it might as well be a curse. This kind of monkey's paw can be particularly devastating. A blessing for life might twist itself into immortality itself... but immortality without vitality is a prison suitable only for the most evil.